


Afterparty

by Sketchup



Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Confession, F/M, Kissing, Original Character(s), Romantic Fluff, non-canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-15
Updated: 2020-06-15
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:55:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24731167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sketchup/pseuds/Sketchup
Summary: Written before the official end of the game, this was how I first imagined my apprentice and Julian confessing their feelings for one another. Old and not canon, but sweet. <3
Relationships: Apprentice/Julian Devorak, Julian Devorak x Celeste
Kudos: 24





	Afterparty

Celeste finally escaped the celebration, slipping into the quiet sanctuary of her palace room with a sigh. The past few weeks had introduced her to so many new people, parties, adventures, dangers...part of her enjoyed the excitement, but another part was relieved to be alone. 

For a long time, she had almost always been alone. After Asra taught her to function as a human being, he was gone so often that Celeste spent many days in their shop, by herself, waiting for him to return. Studying magic, even though she secretly hated it, in the hopes that someday Asra would deem her worthy enough to take with him.

And then the biggest adventure of all had fallen into her lap, and everything changed. Now, Celeste truly felt she wasn’t alone. Even at that moment, an entire palaces’ worth of people were outside her door, and any one of them could be counted as a friend.

The feeling caused a wave of emotion to wash up, nearly choking her as she sat on the bed, reveling in it with something close to awe.

Just then, the doorknob of the room turned, and for a moment she could hear the sounds of all those people to whom she was connected.

But the one standing in the doorway was the only one among them who could make her heart sing in her chest before she’d even seen his face. She didn’t need to get that far. His energy was already imprinted on her; his essence as familiar to her as her own.

Looking up, up, up--there was so much of him, and she was enamored with every inch--she finally found his clever lips, curled up in a smile, and his eyes, which were crinkled and bright with laughter.

Being with him was better than being alone; better than being with everyone. Being with him was just right.

The feelings within her as she looked up at him were so warm and tender, she was dismayed when his face suddenly changed; when he looked at her with alarm, his thick auburn brows knitting together.

“Hey now, hey now,” he soothed, rushing from the door to the side of the bed. His long, lanky frame knelt in front of her, her entire field of vision treated to his wiry ginger hair and broad chest. His hands, gloved as usual, gently cupped her cheeks, the thumbs brushing like a butterfly’s wings under her eyes. “What’s all this? My brave, strong, wonderful girl.”

It was only then, only with him in front of her, his hands on her face, the concern shining in his eyes, that Celeste realized she had been crying. She blinked, startled by the fact, and felt heavy drops fall to the fabric of her dress.

“I don’t know,” she admitted, almost embarrassed. With Julian, she merely leaned into his touch more, knowing he would give her everything she needed...even if she didn’t know what that was, exactly. “I think there was just so much… There wasn’t really time to think about it. First I had to find you, and then I had to keep Nadia from killing you. Then that happened anyway, and I had to save you. Finding out the truth of my past. Then there was the masquerade, the running, the Arcana realms, losing my body, fighting to keep the Devil out of the human realm...and now.” Everything rushed out of her in one enormous breath, a recap that she knew he didn’t need, but would listen to patiently anyway. 

“I guess after all of that, now that it’s over, my mind just...needed time to let go of some emotions.”

“Perfectly understandable, my dear.” Julian’s soothing voice lulled her, and the knot which had formed in her chest earlier dissolved as if it had never existed in the first place. He wiped away a few more errant tears, the leathery touch of his glove moving across her face as he pushed some hair behind her ear. That was followed by the gentlest of feather-light kisses on her forehead; a gesture which, despite all of the heated and passionate touches between them, landed more solidly on Celeste’s heart than anything before it.

Filled with a sudden certainty, Celeste lifted her arms, twining them around Julian’s neck. He looked startled, but accepted her embrace without question.

“I know we haven’t talked about this yet,” Celeste said, “but I have to tell you...I love you.” She had expected to be nervous when she said it, but it flowed off her tongue as naturally as if she had said it a hundred times. In her heart, she had. She’d been saying it all along. “I love you so much. And if that’s too much for you right now, then I understand. But you should know that I don’t intend to give up. You’re not the only one who can be stubborn, and I…” The adrenaline finally caught up, her voice shaking with the strength of emotions she could barely name. And Julian’s face, which she assumed would be stained crimson with embarrassment, was eerily serious.

But before she could find her train of thought again, Julian looked away, biting his lip.

Her heart trembled in its cage.

“I’m such an idiot.”

Well, that wasn’t what she expected to hear after a declaration of love. Not that she had any experience with it, but she had heard things, of course. Was he just being Julian? Was he saying he couldn’t return her feelings? That he was an idiot for leading her on?

She pulled back, the look on her face more stern than she meant it to be.

“What are you talking about? And what did I say about calling the man I love an idiot?”

“That’s just the problem! I made you go and say it first, when I--” 

In a flash of movement, Julian got to his feet, and in a whirl had tugged Celeste up snug against him, their hips molded, his hands nestled in the small of her back.

“I should have been the one to say it first, but you’ve always been braver than me, haven’t you? I’m a coward, Celeste. You know that, and yet….”

Finally, even as she could sense Julian’s voice crack, full of emotion, Celeste’s feelings soared. He wasn’t turning her down. Far from it. 

Joy flooded through her like lightening; like fireworks. It threatened to burst from every corner of her heart; to seep out of every pore; to shatter out of her mortal frame. 

He looked down at her, surprised.

“Celeste, are you…?”

She looked at herself in the room’s mirror. To match her mood, her body had indeed lit up, an unearthly glow lighting the room and illuminating every corner.

“I’m fine, don’t mind me.” She was almost annoyed that her magic had interrupted his confession. “Please, keep going.”

He chuckled weakly, running a hand over his face. It was such a healthier-looking face now than when she had first met him in the lamplight of her shop on that moonless night not so long ago. The care he was beginning to take in himself showed, and it made her unbelievably happy.

“To be honest, I’ve felt...I’ve loved you for a while now. A lot longer than I wanted to admit to myself. It didn’t feel right, when you were so brilliant, and I was so stained.”

Celeste could feel herself bristle again; Julian noticed as well, hurrying to continue. 

“I don’t feel like that anymore,” he added quickly, “or at least not so much. I still think you’re amazing, of course.” He winked, an echo of his usual saucy spark. “But you know what I mean. And then, when I knew I couldn’t deny it anymore, it didn’t seem like the right time. I was going to tell you...but as usual, you beat me to the punch. My perfect partner in crime.”

“Julian…” Celeste didn’t know if it was possible for a person to even be so completely and unequivocally happy. She moved to kiss him, but he held up a hand.

“Wait, wait.” That hand dove into his hair, which already stood on end. “Let me finish it all. My whole life felt like it was full of things I couldn’t keep. Everything for me was ‘for now,’ or ‘for a moment,’ or ‘until it’s time to go.’ I don’t know if it was because I was too afraid to try to reach out and try to hold on, or because I convinced myself I wasn’t worth the bother. But you have to know, Celeste…”

Finally he turned back to her, his emotions raw on his face, his grey eyes both sober and heart-meltingly vulnerable. It took all of her strength not to fold him into her and never let go.

“You have to know how I feel about you. And that’s...if I only get to keep one thing in my life; if I only get one thing I never have to let go...I want it to be you.”

There was a hitched intake of breath, from which of them no one was sure, and then the tenuous thread snapped, and suddenly they were all over each other, entwined in each other; a flurry of arms, of words, of wanting and needing to be closer.

“Always,” Celeste vaguely heard herself murmuring to him, even as her mouth sought him out, “I’ll always be with you, from now on. Just try to get rid of me.”

His chuckle thrummed through her entire body; where it stopped and she began, she couldn’t tell.

This feeling, Celeste thought giddily, was worth everything. It was something she would treasure every day of her life. After all, who knew better than they how precious life could be? It wasn’t often you had two people who had cheated death and lived to talk about it.

Julian pulled back, his lips kiss-swollen, his eyes lidded in that dangerous way that threatened to force all thought from her head in favor of pure desire. 

“I, uhm, well… That is, uh…” His head lolled in the direction of the door, face, ears and neck flushed. “Should we, uhm...go back to the party?”

Celeste raised a hand, the lock engaging with a smart ‘click’ that stood out from the sounds of their panting breaths.

“I don’t think they’ll miss us for a bit, do you?”

And that, Celeste thought as she planted a lovely, blooming love bite on Julian’s chest, was exactly the way she wanted to spend her time from now until the end of their second lives.


End file.
